Category: Sackville’s Memorial park

Thanks to Mr. Jonathan Kay for informing of the following:

Is there anything more unwise and divisive as the above? Why are school boards getting into such illogical reasoning, which may be stemming from extreme multiculturalism to the extent of denying one’s own heritage? Even in the Lebanon where Bambi grew up in the middle of bloody civil war, people celebrated Christmas with joy. Many decorated their houses for the event, even without being of the Christian faith themselves. So, now you are going to convince Bambi that an event in the month of December is disrespectful to people who do not celebrate Christmas? Nonsense. Once again, this mentality seems to be stemming from a cultural form of self-hate. How can you pretend to be welcoming to newcomers from different cultural backgrounds when you do not validate your own cultural tradition? And haven’t you thought about more local people as well as immigrants who may love Christmas?

In the same spirit of collective self-disrespect toward one’s own history, there was another unacceptable story in a different school of Ontario, namely in Ottawa. Thankfully, the principal came to his senses and “apologizes for song played during Remembrance Day assembly” (https://shorturl.at/lo66p). The song was a Palestinian Arabic song related to the current round of war in the Middle East, which clearly did not not have any place in a ceremony meant for Remembrance Day. How sad it is to hijack such tribute precious time to score an ideological (political or religious or whatever else) point of view. How unwise it is to do so, regardless of the theme or language of the song, whether in Hebrew , Arabic, or in Farsi.

For God’s sake, enough of sectarianism and tribalism. This day is just one per year where Canadians come together to honour those who gave their lives to serve our beautiful country. Leave the Middle East out of it. Those of us who left the latter did it precisely in order not to hear about it on a such a meaningful day as Remembrance Day.

Today we commemorate the armistice agreement that ended the First World War, which took place on Monday, November 11, 1918, at 11 AM.

This is the day to express our gratitude to our fellow Canadian men and women who have served during times of both peace and war. They have contributed to make our world a safer and freer one. Thus, many thanks to each one of them for either their past sacrifices or their continuous service in the Canadian Armed Forces.

This being said, Bambi is grateful for the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy for its inspiring five-minute documentary entitled “Remembering Those Who Served”. She hopes you will enjoy it as much as she did.

Mr. Yves Montand was born on October 13, 1921. Of note, he shares this birthday with Ms. Nana Mouskouri, born in 1934 (https://shorturl.at/CxUgh), as well as with one of this blog’s friends and a dear relative who will recognize themselves in this post : ). Mr. Montand died at age 70 on November 9, 1991 (https://shorturl.at/agjLW).

For those who do not know it, Montand’s real name was Mr. Ivo Livi. He was born in Monsummano Terme, Italy. His family migrated to France following Mr. Benito Mussolini’s rise to power (https://shorturl.at/agjLW). He grew up in the charming Marseille where he started a career as a music-hall singer. He was later discovered in Paris by Ms Édith Piaff (https://shorturl.at/agjLW) with whom he had a beautiful love story. May his and her memory be eternal.

Thanks Salome for the lovely Dutch view ❤️. Long live the charm of your country!

Bambi is blessed because she saw her mom in her dream yesterday night.

Today, she wants to offer her two musical pieces while publicly honouring her memory.

May Robine keep watching over her dear Antoine and their daughters et al., along with all their loved ones in Beirut.

May she keep an eye on her birth country, Lebanon, during its most challenging times.

— Thanks for ALL, mama habibi ❤️, and may your memory be eternal —

Today is the US presidential election, but for Bambi what matters the most about this day is that it the birthday of two of her dear friends abroad. Before its end, this day ended up also bringing an expected good time with another friend at home. So long live friendship and genuine relationships whether on election days or not.

To begin with, with much love, happy birthday wishes dearest Nina and Piia ❤️! May this year be rewarding to both of you!

This being said, best wishes to our dear neighbours, regardless of the election outcome, which will soon be known worldwide (whether tonight, tomorrow… or maybe even later).

At the end of the democratic process, the United States will have a president that the countries of the world will soon congratulate.

One thing is sure, presidents come and go (when they are not prevented from coming like in Lebanon), but countries remain. Thankfully, countries or nations remain. Yes, life moves on post-election.

Likely like you dear readers, Bambi does not know who will win. She may be wrong, but she doubts that any new American president will change anything in the current fiasco of the Middle East, at least in the short term. She is saying so while hoping that the winning president would be tougher with Iran to put a final end to proxy wars in Lebanon and in the neighbourhood. Perhaps Mr. Trump is better known for his tougher approach with the Iranian regime, but an efficient negotiation strategy can be eventually learned by others, including Ms. Harris, if elected. Why not?

Anyhow, all the best to the United States. May peace and more prosperity prevail in this country, here in Canada, and everywhere on our beautiful planet.

Bambi has been silent since October 31st. Of course she has been busy with work and with life, but this is not why she is speechless. Words are still escaping her while she awaits the end of the nightmare, especially that the Lebanese people are tired of undergoing crisis after crisis, war after war.

Speechless or not, Bambi refuses to lose faith in humanity and hope for brighter days, not just for Lebanon but also for the entire Middle East (and the whole world). Sadly, the ongoing machine of war is too advanced to stop right now. Thus, peaceful days are extremely hard to envision even in a near future. Yet, one must always remember that there is light at the end of any tunnels, including those of senseless and unwanted wars.

This being said, this post will end now with Mr. Berberyan’s beautiful Armenian song, entitled “Lipanan Im Yergir”. In 2020, this Lebanese artist wrote the following moving words on YouTube: “My new song specially dedicated to Lebanon. We all know what this beautiful country had to indure during the last years.. the message of this song is one of hope and love. I was born in Lebanon , lived three major wars during my childhood , loved the country I was born in with all my heart and found my Armenian identity in the streets and schools of Burj Hammoud. Yes , Lebanon is the home of a large Armenian community who didn’t spare any effort in building schools , cultural institutions and countless churches in order to protect our most treasured Armenian values. Lebanon is and will always remain a piece of heaven and a motherland outside our precious motherland Armenia. Elie Berberyan“.

Thank you, Mr. Berberyan. All the best to your/our beloved country, “Lipanan” [Lebanon]. Same best wishes to your “motherland Armenia“, which Bambi dreams to visit one day, as her parents did.

Day after day, war is destroying Lebanon. As a change from the sad news in the media, Bambi shares a song in a promotional video she just found. May the suffering of the Lebanese people end once and for all. May tourists who will return to the Land of the Cedars be charmed with its beauty again, just like in Mr. Omar Rahbany’s joyful song.

Early morning Bambi briefly read in L’Orient Le Jour the shocking story of two Iranian brothers of Kurdish origins (https://tinyurl.com/e6hx92tu). This evening she took the time to re-read the details of this awful story in Le Matin (https://tinyurl.com/yckfkdd8).

The tragedy reported above stems from Iran’s HARSH version of the Sharia law. The latter derives from the Koran and the Sunnah (words/actions of the Prophet Muhammad). It includes a set of individual as well as collective rights, duties, rules, and sanctions for Muslims. The latter are derived from tradition and jurisprudence (https://tinyurl.com/2dt5unc7).

Since we are in 2024, why is the Iranian regime still using a guillotine to physically punish its citizens, whether wrongfully or accurately convicted of theft? Instead of reforming its legal system, Iran is busy using other countries, including tiny Lebanon, as a battle ground to fight Israel, via its Islamist proxies. How can we trust it then to have nuclear weapons?

Of note, the barbaric story featured in this post followed another tragedy: Iran executed a German-American-Iranian dissident, Mr. Jamshid Sharmahd. Heartfelt condolences to his daughter Ms. Gazelle Sharmahd who, according to the Deutshe Welle, expressed her disappointment by both the American and German governments’ insufficient efforts to try to save her dad (https://tinyurl.com/muae82c7). May his memory be eternal.

Thank you L’Orient Le Jour for your 6 minute podcast, which consists of a moving testimony of a 77-year-old Lebanese woman from Beirut. A podcast worth watching.

According to the video-interview from October 19th that Bambi found only today (https://tinyurl.com/27n5wu8h), Mr. Trump (et al.) want not just “peace” for the Middle East, but also “happiness“, to use his own words. According to him, the people of Lebanon will be happy in the end despite their unbearable suffering.

Of note, the video also mentions some stats about the estimated very high number of Americans of Lebanese descent as well as Americans of Arab heritage (i.e., including those of the Muslim faith) who are planning to vote for Mr. Trump.

In contrast to Mr. Trump’s optimism, in the the video mentioned above and shared below, the interviewed Lebanese lady seems to be more pessimistic than the former (and maybe future?) American president.